Transcription
Hello everybody, welcome back to the channel. My name is Nick, and in today's video, I'm going to talk about what we feed our ASF rats. I'm going to run through kind of all of it and just kind of where some of it came from, you know, and just kind of, um, talk about what I've seen since switching to this diet. So let's get right into it.
I'm going to kind of get into kind of now what we feed, uh, predominantly, and then kind of what the pellets I currently use are. Uh, and I will say, uh, we still do use Mazuri 6F, but I also blend in, uh, cattle feed. It's a 20% cattle feed that I get from my local, uh, feed store. Um, so I do mix in the Mazuri and the cattle feed a little bit. But honestly, what I've noticed is, is mine don't really touch the pellets as much because of what else I supplement with. So let's get right into that.
So the first thing that we kind of feed a ton of is carrots. Uh, we feed these guys tons upon tons upon tons of carrots. I buy like, I think these are, what are these? I don't know. We'll call like a bushel of carrots, whatever a bag of carrots. It's actually two pounds. So each week, we buy like, I want to say somewhere in the neighborhood of like 20, 20 pounds or so, 15 to 20 pounds of carrots each week, and that's what we feed a lot of. Like, I'll line their tubs with, uh, two of these typically, like two like that, and that will last, usually that lasts until Friday the next week. And then on Sunday, I kind of replenish it for them. So they, they eat on it throughout the week. So, you know, two of these per container typically. Now, if you got some bigger ones in there, some babies in there, it all varies. So you just check on it throughout the week.
Now, another thing that we do feed is eggs. So I buy, uh, 10 dozen eggs a week or so, somewhere in that range. Yeah, about 10 dozen eggs. And I hard boil them all up, and then I crack them up, and then I put one or two in each bin depending on how big they are. Um, and depending on how many there are in there, you know, if there's a lot of babies in there, then I'll put two in there so they can start weaning off of it. But I found that they love eggs, uh, a lot, like a lot, a lot. Uh, so I try to give them like two eggs a week. Um, one to two eggs a week, just depending. They don't, some of them love it, and they'll usually on Sunday nights, they'll usually kind of eat all of it on Sunday night. So by Monday, some tubs still have a little bit of remnants in there, some don't. I come through, I check it, and I kind of look at it. But usually, if it's not gone Sunday night, it is definitely on Monday night, and I don't have to worry about picking out the scraps as much.
Um, now the other thing that I do offer, and I offered it last week, so I'm gonna keep offering it because they loved it, is potato. Um, just a normal potato. I hard boil those as well. I kind of slice them up into some tinier pieces for them, and they love them. I don't, I do like maybe half a potato for a group of four, and that'll last them two or three days as well. So that's pretty, it's pretty good. I mean, they love it. You know, I don't, um, these are just kind of more what's gonna become my new, like, new staples is carrots, eggs, and then some potatoes. Um, I don't, I don't want to overdo the potato because I don't want to overdo the carb side of it, but I do like, they obviously enjoy having it, and it keeps them happy and healthy. So I'm gonna keep doing that.
Um, and then same thing with the eggs. I think that what I've kind of found, and I kind of get into it with what else we feed, um, is that protein is like huge for these guys. Like ASFs. I know a lot of people, and I had trouble with it too, a lot of moms were eating their babies, a ton of moms eating their babies. I was feeding 6F only, and a ton of moms, as soon as they had their litter, they would start eating them. And I, I couldn't figure out why. And I don't remember who I watched. I didn't get better at like remembering who I watched so I can give them credit in these videos because a lot of this is not like my original idea. I've watched it from, you know, it. But, you know, it's funny because there's only like five other people on YouTube who do these, this rat stuff, who are bigger names, you know? So like, it's, it definitely was one of probably the bigger name people who I got it from. I just cannot remember. But they brought up a good point that like proteins, everything. Protein is so important to these guys. And especially for the uses that we are using them for, is to grow big and healthy and strong, produce big litters. So I can feed my snakes. That is my end goal here, and that is what I believe is most important. So for me to be able to offer a high protein diet to these guys has worked well. Since I started moving to this more natural food transition, we have had not a single mom eat their baby in three months. Not a single mom eat their baby. My litter sizes are way up, and they even eat the shell on this, which is good for calcium. So there is a lot of, a lot of benefits that I found to this that I'm not, I'm not struggling with like I was before when I was just using the breeder formula diet. I don't think there's anything wrong with the breeder formula diet at all. I just think that with ASFs, for some reason, they're a little more finicky. I don't know why, but this has worked out fantastically.
Um, and I, a local breeder of mine, I talked with him. Uh, he's actually the one who I bought a lot of this stuff from, a lot of the rats from originally. Uh, kind of picked his brain on what he feeds. And, and he, he doesn't really use, um, much of the 6F at all. And I've, and I, like I said, I use his rats, and they're all very healthy and big. So he's feeding them right, you know? But next, what I'll kind of get into, I'm not going to lift it up because it's a 40-pound bag, but I'll hold some up. It's black sunflower seeds. Now, black sunflower seeds, first of all, they absolutely destroy them. They love them. They are higher in fats and things like that. So what I do is I'll sprinkle it in their tubs so they have to forage for it. Kind of gives them a little mental enrichment. The shell aspect of it too, and all that having to crack it open and whatnot, that gives them some mental enrichment as well, and I think that they really do enjoy it. So that good fats for them, healthy fats for them, gives them the foraging skills that they would use out in the wild, helps them use their little brains because they're very smart animals. So, you know, if I'm gonna keep them in tubs like this, which I feel like semi-guilty about honestly, I'm gonna make sure that they are eating, you know, really nutritious foods and that they're honestly having things to do in there that isn't just breed, you know, breed and then, uh, nurse and then mate and then breed and then, you know, give them something else to kind of look forward to.
So kind of brings me into, um, every now and then, uh, this isn't exactly a staple. Um, I'll supplement with like some rabbit daily diet, but like not a lot. Like I'll just put a couple little, uh, pellets in there. It's, it's just more of a treat. Um, and honestly too, what it does help with is it helps with the babies. Uh, helps them transition and wean off. If there's like a little something in there that they can just pick up and nibble on. So it's not really used for the adults. I don't really know if the adults touch it that much with everything else we put in there. But sometimes in a tub with babies, I'll put some of that in there because it still has good fats, good proteins in it. It's a good overall, um, you know, macro diet for them. It seems like it, it kind of hits the protein standards that we kind of want.
Um, now I will touch on that, uh, a lot of the food that I use protein-wise, I want it to be 18 plus percent, but like no higher than 22 to 23. So everything that I use is usually in that 20 range. I have just had so much more success using 20. Success being, um, not eating their babies. I have not had them eat their babies using 20. Now, something that I believe has helped out tremendously and has been a huge factor of it, and I kind of bought it almost as a one-off treat, but it's quickly becoming a staple because they really seem to absolutely destroy them and it seems to make them happier, I guess that's a good way of putting it. So, and I'll just show up the two that we use right here. So this is, they're both Duralife. So Duralife Meaty and Peanut Butter flavored dog biscuits. Now, the reason that we use the dog biscuits is because it has 20% protein in it. It's got 3% fiber, and then 7 and a half percent fat. Now, what I've noticed a lot is nursing moms will, will just chew on these while the babies are nursing. Don't, don't know why, you know, whatever. I threw it in there. It's just, I just want to see if they, if they would eat it, you know? I was watching someone else's YouTube channel and they said that they kind of leave in some dog bones here and there just for the rats to kind of chew on. So I just kind of adopted it, and it's worked out fantastically. I usually put, um, I'll put like one biscuit in for every two, uh, ASFs in there. And then same thing with the mice. I'll put like two in there for like a pack of them because they don't, the mice just don't eat as much. But they all love it. And, you know, by doing this and buying all this type of food, it is, I think in the long run, it's definitely more expensive. Actually, I'm almost 100% positive it's more expensive to do it like this, but it's worked out so much better than how we were experiencing it before. So I'm gonna keep doing it just because I've had so much success with it. My litter sizes are way up, the babies seem healthier, everything seems to be growing faster than it was before. I mean, it seems like they're weaning quicker, which is awesome. So that's why, you know, and especially to like, as we grow with this, it's just kind of only going to add up in cost, but it's really helped out a lot. So that's kind of everything that we feed.
Um, I have rotated like zucchini in there, and I'm, I'm kind of playing around with some other stuff to rotate in there for them. So they, you know, just because why not, you know, it doesn't, it's not gonna hurt them to throw in something different. I'm always very, uh, cautious, and I always Google like, hey, is this safe for rats? And there's like some rat-safe food lists out there. So, uh, one thing though, I will say that I don't offer, uh, really ever, is cheese. Um, I've had, I've heard like a lot of mixed reviews on cheese that it really, since it's so high in fat, it's probably not great for them. Um, because you don't want them to get a fatty liver. But then again, too, whenever you're doing the high protein diet, uh, long term, that can be harder on their kidneys. So there is a give and take with it. And it's like, that's why I like to offer options because I do believe that the rats are smart enough to understand what they're putting in their body, uh, as long as you're giving them options and they kind of learn over time, kind of like a human, you know, humans will learn like, this many calories is going to keep me sustained, this many calories is too much, you know, and things like that. So to me, I, I do think that by offering high protein biscuits, the fats, the seeds, the veggies, the eggs, that kind of gives them a lot of options to pick from that are healthy and nutritious for them. And instead of like, because my fear is if I started offering them cheese in there, they would just all fight over the cheese right off the bat and they wouldn't care about anything else. So I want them to be filled up with nutritious items that's gonna wrap up this video, guys.
Uh, comment down below anything that you feed your rats. I'm actually very interested because like I said, I'm trying to spice up their life a little bit. Um, you know, they are feeders, but there's no reason that they can't live a semi-happy life for, you know, a couple months, right? So, uh, comment down below what you feed and any advice that you have for me. I'm all open to hearing it and I'd like to kind of hear from you guys who own rats or have owned rats and just things that you feed, you know, because it, it all helps. You know, there is no right or wrong answers. Well, that's not true, there's right answers, there's wrong answers, but there's always the opportunity to learn and become better. So I think that that's what the most important thing is, uh, for me, is just always be willing to learn and become better. Just because you don't know, you're not always right, and that's okay. So with that said, guys, uh, that's gonna wrap this video. Thank you for watching. Hit that like button, hit that subscribe button, especially if you made it this far. And until next time, guys, stay safe and stay positive.